Pino Rauti

Pino Rauti (19 November 1926-2 November 2012) was an Italian neo-fascist politician who founded and led the Social Idea Movement.

Biography
Pino Rauti was born in Cardinale, Calabria, Italy in 1926, and he served in the army of the Salo Republic before joining the Spanish Legion. In 1948, he joined the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI), and he formed the Ordine Nuovo group in 1954. In 1956, he split with the MSI due to its support for Giovanni Gronchi's presidency and Giuseppe Pella's premiership, and he advocated for the "strategy of tension" against the far-left. He supported street battles with the left-wing militants during the "Years of Lead", and also ordered far-right militants to infiltrate hte leftist groups. In 1972, he was brought to trial for his role in the Piazza Fontana bombing, but he was acquitted. Rauti was said to be a SISMI contact, and he helped Guido Giannettini with the founding of the Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari. In 1969, he returned to the MSI and joined its Central Committee under Giorgio Almirante, and he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1972. He then became a leading MEP during the 1980s, and became deputy-secretary of the MSI in 1987. In 1990, he became MSI leader, but he was removed from office in 1991 and succeeded by Gianfranco Fini. He opposed the dissolution of the MSI in 1995, founding Tricolor Flame. In 2004, he was expelled from his own party after its new leader, Luca Romagnoli, decided to ally with Silvio Berlusconi in a move vehemently opposed by Rauti. He established the Social Idea Movement that same year, and he died in Rome in 2012 at the age of 85.